


Fandom Feels

by Mordhena



Category: Enterprise - Fandom, Multi-Fandom, Star Trek, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Supernatural
Genre: Community - Freeform, Fandom, IFDShare, International Fanworks Day 2016, Meta, Other, what fandom means to me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 19:12:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6021649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mordhena/pseuds/Mordhena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If this is not permitted here, I will remove it. It can also be found on my tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fandom Feels

February 15 is international fan works day. 

I have always been, and will always be, a creator of transformative works, aka fanfiction. I wrote my first story based on a television show when I was about 9 years old. It was a story set in the Star Trek universe and told of an adventure that the crew of the USS Enterprise went on. My sisters and I later role played the story together in the back yard. 

I didn't know that my story was called fanfiction, and, perhaps, at that point, the term had not yet been invented. I just wanted to create my own Star Trek adventure.

It was not til I was in my thirties that I discovered "fanfic" in particular, "slash." 

I was at that time, the mother of three young children and also, the leader of a Star Trek Role Play Group (RPG) called Federation Fleet One (FFO). In FFO, my online friends and I would gather on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels and create our own weekly episodes of Star Trek based missions. 

We would also "Sim"(ulate) storylines on an Internet bulletin board wherein our characters would conduct both on and off duty lives and relationships. We even created a dictionary of the Bajoran Language composed of words and phrases both from the TV program Deep Space Nine and many words created by members of our group. 

It was a lot like acting, but it was all text based.

It was while chatting in between 'sims' on an IRC channel that I first heard the word 'slash' mentioned in relation to fanfiction. I asked what it meant and that was the beginning of the end.

I understand that there is a genre of horror writing which is known as slash because it entails a lot of blood and gore, but the slash my friends were talking about was different. It was where you took characters from a work that you admired, be they opposite sexes or same sex, and placed them within a story where they formed a romantic and usually physically intimate relationship.

I was intrigued. My friends gave me some "Recs" to read and I found myself hooked!

It was not long before I had to try this for myself! 

So, there I was, about 25 years after writing my Star Trek adventure, writing fanfiction again. 

I started out writing in the Star Trek Voyager fandom. My ships were Chakotay/Paris, Paris/Kim and the occasional Paris/Janeway.

Slash takes it's name from the / between the names of the characters.

I wrote VOY until the series ended, and then turned my hand to ENT (Star Trek Enterprise).

After Enterprise ended, I made a brief foray into writing my own M/M for publication and I believe that my success in getting them published came down to the experience I gained by writing fanfiction which helped me to develop my writing 'chops.'

I still write fanfiction today. My main fandom now, is Supernatural.

But all of the forgone being said, it's not just about the writing. It's about the community. My love of playing in fandom has brought me friendships that have stood the test of time. I have formed bonds with people whom I have never met in person and yet, whom I consider my dearest friends.

The kindness, the fellowship, the encouragement I receive from them, and which, I can only hope I give in return has been such a huge thing in my life!

I am grateful for each and every one of my fandom family members and my life has been so deeply enriched by them all. We have chatted through the night, exchanged reams upon reams of email sent nerdy, squeeing text messages gushing over the latest episodes of beloved shows. We have consoled one another through the deaths of beloved pets, and, even more sadly, family members.

We have laughed, we have cried but most of all, we have loved each other and our fandoms.

Will I ever stop doing this?

Not while there is breath in my lungs and a plot bunny hopping around in my head!


End file.
